The FDAsaid it would consider requiring brands to remove flavored products, which could be contributing to the rise in youth e-cigarette use. And it highlighted e-cigarettes' role as a way for adult smokers to transition off cigarettes.

School and health advocates are praising the federal crackdown on e-cigarette companies after the Food and Drug Administration gave companies and retailers 60 days to prove they can prevent access to teens in an effort to address the "epidemic of youth e-cigarette use".

The FDA plans to step up enforcement actions to monitor, penalize and prevent e-cigarette sales in convenience stores and other retail sites.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said the steps announced by Gottlieb "have the potential to make a fundamental difference".

The said that doesn't mean e-cigarettes are benign, and officials are anxious about vaping's impact on young people's brains.

'We see clear signs that youth use of electronic cigarettes has reached an epidemic proportion, ' he said in today's announcement. And in fact, the FDA's announced a plan to basically slash the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to try to wean more Americans off tobacco cigarettes. The academy said Gottlieb has the authority to intervene in the market to protect minors, and any further delay runs the risk that "a generation of young people will become addicted to these unsafe products".

"These alternative nicotine delivery devices can be important for helping adults get off of combustible tobacco as an offramp", said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo on Thursday. Many researchers say the devices are less unsafe than traditional, combustible cigarettes because they don't contain tobacco's cancer-causing ingredients.

The FDA's regulation of tobacco products has always been marked by twists and turns and years of debate. "But in closing the on-ramp for kids, we're going to have to narrow the on-ramp for adults".

Boston 'deeply disturbed' by charges against Jabari Bird
What is Bird's employment status with the Celtics? Bird, 24, was selected by the Celtics with the 56th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. A statement from Bird on Thursday said that he will be taking some time away from the Celtics, according to ESPN's Marc J.

On Tuesday, Gottlieb said the FDA could just as easily change its approach.

According to the company's website, the mission of JUUL products is to improve the lives of the world's 1 billion adult smokers. Youths are more likely than adults to vape, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite the fact that they can not legally be sold to anyone under 18, e-cigarettes - hand-held vaporizers that create aerosols from liquids typically packed with nicotine and other chemicals, often including flavorings - are now the most popular tobacco product among high school students, recent federal data shows. And the agency says this is the largest coordinated enforcement action the FDA's ever taken.

Gottlieb said the FDA identified the influence this can non-public on adults attempting to cease smoking, but said that emerging overview on how flavored merchandise assist excessive employ by children shows action may perchance perchance simply level-headed be taken.

The US Food and Drug Administration announced on September 12 that it's taking a hard stance against e-cigarette marketing geared towards kids and teenagers.

Mastrodonato said Juul is a popular e-cigarette brand and a big seller at her store, but that she is careful about who she allows to buy it.

Bottles of flavor packets for e-cigarettes stand displayed in a tobacco shop in New York on June 23, 2015. "They must demonstrate that they're truly committed to keeping these new products out of the hands of kids, and they must find a way to reverse this trend", Gottlieb said.

The agency said it's a major concern because "the developing adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to nicotine addiction".